Emergency responders lack Japanese skills

Feb. 21, 2013
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Written by

Pacific Daily News

Merizo resident Norbert Quinata, 41, said he thinks Guam's police officers and firefighters do an excellent job. For example, he's seen officers in unmarked cars working in Tumon, keeping an eye out for tourists.

What he can't understand, he said, is why public safety workers on an island that caters primarily to Japanese tourists are unable to speak Japanese.

Quinata, who has worked in the island's tourism industry for 20 years and speaks Japanese, said he has been pulled into many situations involving police, firefighters and tourist victims. He doesn't work for the police or fire departments, but happened to be nearby when they needed help. His job often brings him to Tumon.

The Feb. 12 attack in Tumon was the most recent example, he said, when, as a bystander, he became an impromptu translator between emergency workers, injured tourists and family members.

Quinata said he didn't see what happened, but he helped translate near the SandCastle, where people had been hit by a car.

Chad De Soto, 21, is being held on $3 million bail, accused of murdering a Japanese man with his car and murdering two Japanese women with a knife. Eleven other people were injured in the assault.

Language barriers

Paramedics near the SandCastle were unable to instruct victims about their medical conditions or understand what the victims were telling them, Quinata said.

And police officers trying to secure the area -- a section of the tourist district was blocked off -- were unable to provide instructions to Japanese tourists, he said.

The emergency responders were all speaking in English, Quinata said.

"I was traumatized, I was in shock, but I tried to maintain my composure because I saw there was a problem," Quinata said. "When you're dealing with people's lives... and for them to be unable to communicate with an injured party, I find that very disturbing."

Serving as translator between a paramedic and an injured woman, Quinata told the woman that her blood pressure was high. The woman reached into her purse and started taking pills, and the paramedic was "freaking out" because he didn't know what she was taking, Quinata said. It was prescription blood pressure medicine, the woman told Quinata.

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Also at the scene, rescue workers were trying to make a woman walk, not understanding that she said she couldn't, Quinata said.

Another woman asked for a phone so she could call Japan, Quinata said.

"Nobody else was paying attention to her but me, because of that communication gap."

Necessary skill

Quinata does sales and marketing for Oz Cruises Inc., a marine sports company on Cocos Island, and he said speaking Japanese is an important skill to sell his product. It's a skill he also used earlier in his career, working for Atlantis Submarine, Seawalker Tours and Fisheye Marine Park, he said. He said he also is learning to speak a little Russian and Chinese.

Fire department spokesman Lt. Ed Artero said speaking Japanese is not a condition of employment for Guam firefighters. He said he is unaware of any initiative or push to require knowledge of the Japanese language.

"Yeah, there are times when we do respond to tourists, but that's not the majority of our alarm volume," Artero said.

No requirement

Police spokesman Officer A.J. Balajadia said the police department also doesn't require its officers to speak Japanese as a condition of employment. However, there are some officers who speak other languages, including Japanese, he said.

"We have many sources we use when there is a need for translation," he said.

That includes bystanders like Quinata, who said he's been pressed into service enough times in Tumon to see there's a significant language barrier between public safety workers and tourists there.

One time a Japanese man had a heart attack in a hotel lobby, Quinata said. Another time, he was asked by police to help a Japanese woman identify the man who snatched her purse on the beach.

The conversation started on the street, and he accompanied them to the police precinct to continue translating.

"The communication gap, especially when you're asking questions that are a matter of life and death -- I think there should be no compromise, man," Quinata said. "It's not to discredit the police force or the fire department. It's to bring this issue to the forefront, that this is something we may have overlooked."